Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a side airbag device for a vehicle and to a method of folding a side airbag.
Related Art
In a side airbag device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2014-237411, an airbag is housed in a folded state inside a side support on a vehicle outer side of a seat back of a vehicle seat. This airbag is deployed and inflated between a seated vehicle occupant and side wall portions of the vehicle by inflator gas from an inflator.
In a folded state, a folded portion at a distal end (i.e., a front end and an upper end) in the deployment direction of this airbag is folded back towards the vehicle inner side. This distal end folded portion is inflated at the same time as this state of being folded back towards the vehicle inner side is released (i.e., as the airbag is deployed). During this deployment and inflation, the aforementioned distal end folded portion is deployed from the vehicle inner side towards the vehicle outer side. As a result, the distal end folded portion can be smoothly deployed without coming into contact with the side wall portions of the vehicle.
However, in a side airbag device having the above-described structure, when the folded portion at the distal end of the airbag is inflated at the same time as it is deployed from the vehicle inner side towards the vehicle outer side, the direction in which this distal end folded portion is deployed faces towards the vehicle front side. Because of this, if the airbag is inflated and deployed while the vehicle occupant is positioned in an incorrect position on the vehicle forward side of the side support portion, then there is a possibility that the vehicle occupant who is in this incorrect position will receive a load from the distal end folded portion that is deployed towards the vehicle front side. Accordingly, there is room for improvement from the standpoint of improving the performance when protecting a vehicle occupant in an incorrect position (known as the OOP (out of position) performance).